He is accused of supplying Liam Payne with drugs shortly before his death. In a TV interview, Braian Nahuel Paiz not only denies the allegations, but also causes a stir with a claim: The waiter apparently believes that the One Direction star was killed.
Argentine waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, accused of supplying Liam Payne with drugs, has broken his silence. In a TV interview with the “Telefe Noticias” channel, the man asserted that he had done nothing wrong. Instead, he became “intimate” with the singer. He also apparently believes that the former One Direction star was killed. Payne died on October 16 when he fell several stories from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires.
According to Argentine police, toxicology results showed that Payne had consumed alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant several times in the 72 hours before his death. During the investigation, three suspects were arrested, including a hotel employee. They are accused of “neglect of a person resulting in death as well as the supply and distribution of narcotics,” according to the investigation report.
The waiter, suspected of being a drug supplier, now admitted on Argentine television that he had met Payne twice and consumed drugs with him. While he only smoked marijuana, Payne took cocaine, Paiz said. However, he emphasizes that he never supplied the British singer with narcotics or accepted money from him.
“Intimate” overnight date?
The 24-year-old says in the interview that he met Liam Payne in the restaurant where he worked. “I've heard people say he didn't do drugs, but the truth is that when he walked into the restaurant where I worked, he was already high and hadn't actually eaten anything.” The boy band star approached him at some point and asked him for his Instagram contact details. The singer sent messages to the waiter via a secret, unofficial Instagram account “because he wanted to take drugs even though he was already on it.”
On October 2nd, he visited Payne at the Hyatt Hotel, where the musician was initially staying, Paiz said. “We met there and he showed me a few songs he wanted to release. While I was in his room we drank a few whiskeys.” In the following days they were in regular contact via Instagram, Messenger and Snapchat. He can show all the messages because he “didn’t delete anything.”
The second and final meeting took place on the night of Sunday, October 13th, in the Hotel CasaSur, where Payne died just a few days later. They became “intimate”, spent the night together and took drugs, said the 24-year-old. “He wasn't aggressive at all, he behaved really well with me, he was really sweet. He asked me if I was okay.” He continues: “I got messages offering me money because he seemed to be used to offering money for everything, but I never accepted anything.”
“He was scared”
About the death of the boy band star, Paiz says: “I know he didn't jump. He wouldn't have jumped over the railing. He was fine, we spent the night together, it's impossible…” he shows himself stunned. Payne was not someone who would take antidepressants. “Someone must have mixed it in with him, I don't know,” he speculates. Nevertheless, he also reports on a paranoid moment of the late singer: “He was afraid,” claims the waiter. When Paiz wanted to leave, “he sat (Payne) “Just stood there and looked straight ahead.” Suddenly the singer panicked and put paper in the card slot of his hotel room door. Because of his cannabis consumption, Paiz was unable to understand who or what Payne was afraid of.
When the reporter exchanges ideas with the news anchor after the interview, he summarizes the main points that Braian Nahuel Paiz made as follows: “He didn't get any money. He didn't bring him drugs. He (Payne) was afraid. And he (Paiz) claims he was killed.”
Police rule out suicide
However, the police investigation that took place after Payne's death speaks against the 24-year-old's speculations. In a lengthy statement last Thursday, investigators made it clear that Payne was in a state of “semi- or total unconsciousness” when he fell to his death. Suicide was ruled out. “He didn’t know what he was doing,” they said. It is also not known that anyone was with Liam Payne at the time of his death.
It was also said that three men were now being officially investigated. They were not mentioned by name. They are accused of abandoning a person who later died and drug trafficking and supply.
As it became known over the weekend, Argentine police are still searching for the singer's missing Rolex watch as part of their investigation.
Payne's body was returned to Britain last week. The funeral will take place in his hometown of Wolverhampton.
